


"How about you trust me for once?"

by demiclar



Series: Destcember 2020 [14]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Beyond Light, Choosing the Darkness, Destcember 2020, Destcember Day 14, Just another one of my angsty boys, plus angry girl, they have issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:34:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28083258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demiclar/pseuds/demiclar
Summary: Casimir and Zulia have to decide who will wield the Darkness on Europa.
Series: Destcember 2020 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037118
Kudos: 1





	"How about you trust me for once?"

**Author's Note:**

> My boy is back with his old angst again! Sorry this one isn't so Casimir x Drifter as the others about him. But enjoy!

Casimir scowled at Zulia as they stood before the Exo Stranger, a splinter of darkness hovering just over her palm. The Darkness had just led them to Eris, the Stranger and Drifter—which was troubling enough already, but one problem at a time—and the Stranger had told them they had to ally themselves with the Darkness, but she only had one shard with which they could commune with it. So, they had a choice to make. The shard and the Darkness could either go with him, the Traveler’s chosen, the now former right hand of the Vanguard and Drifter’s current second in command, or Zulia, the Vanguard’s current right hand, and one of the strongest Warlocks in the Tower.

“I should be the one to do this.” Casimir told Zulia, for likely the third time by now. He wasn’t sure, they’d been going in a rather circular argument pattern for the past few minutes. “Drifter and I have been working with the Darkness for a while now. I’m more familiar with it than you are, I can resist its temptations.” He explained to her, and she shook her head.

He wasn’t lying, he and Drifter had been side by side since Drifter had started diving deep into using the Darkness to their advantage. Casimir had helped him design his banks that charged up the seed months ago, and he’d brought back the first umbral engram and had helped Drifter build the decoder for it. He’d also been testing and working on the dark weapons for months now. He knew the sting of the Darkness like he knew the clasps on his armor, or the pieces of his favorite guns. The Stasis might have been something new, but he was certainly in a better position to learn and master it than Zulia was.

“Casimir, the Vanguard already doesn’t trust you. If they see you’re using the Darkness now, what are they going to think? Besides, I can handle myself. I went into the pyramids too, you know.” Zulia protested, eyeing him underneath her helmet.

“I don’t care what the Vanguard thinks of me.” He reminded her, his eyes shooting to Drifter just briefly, the other man watching him silently. Casimir might have been the Traveler’s chosen at one point in time, but as far as the Vanguard was concerned, Zulia had stepped up to take that role as soon as he’d allied with the Drifter over them. Not that it was their decision to make. Still, if the Traveler could choose again now, he honestly had no idea who it might pick.

“And what would they think of you? If their chosen suddenly started wielding Darkness. Do you think they’d trust you anymore?” He’d seen how quickly the Vanguard had lost trust in him. All it had taken was a disobeyed order, an unlikely ally, and a declaration that he wasn’t going to be their loyal dog anymore, and they’d abandoned him for Zulia, who was all too willing to play along with them. He’d heard so much truth in the words the Darkness had spoken to them moments ago, it actually concerned him a little. He wondered if Zulia had really heard any of it. He was beginning to wonder if the only reason they’d spoken to Zulia as well as him was because she was a being purer than himself, a beacon of good, ready to be corrupted.

“Let me do this.” He told her firmly. “I’ll be better at controlling it, _and_ you’ll be able to keep on the Vanguard’s good side.”

“And let you have more power than you do already?” Zulia questioned. He still didn’t know if she’d given up trusting him when he’d realized he could no longer trust her, or if it had been long before that. For what reason, he didn’t know. She’d been the one to betray him, after all, and they both knew it. “No, absolutely not. It will only make things worse.”

She was facing him now, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared up at him, just as he was scowling down at her. They were both wearing their helmets still, but they’d been on so many missions in the past it was impossible not to know what the other was thinking.

“If you think the Darkness has already corrupted me now, imagine what it’ll do to you.” He shot at her. “You’ll need a level head. I wasn’t in the best place after Cayde died but I’ve figured myself out now. You’re not there yet. You’re so volatile if I lit a match within twenty feet of you, you’d explode.”

Zulia was paranoid. She’d been tense since the pyramids had arrived, and hadn’t seemed to have relaxed a moment since. He knew it was hard, but her fear was making her irrational, irritable, her decision making was worse and her distrust was stronger than ever. Casimir was honestly surprised she was willing to stand within ten feet of him and Drifter. When they’d been sent to investigate Europa together, he’d been surprised she hadn’t interacted with him at the end of a ten-foot pole, or constantly had him at gunpoint.

Zulia snarled at him. “Why can’t you just trust me for once?” She snapped at him, stepping towards him in anger. He felt the words thunder through him before he breathed in a deep breath, locking his eyes with where he knew hers to be beneath her helmet.

“I _did_ trust you.” He reminded her quietly. “It nearly costed me my life.” Memories of that night stung sharp in his mind’s eye. He didn’t dare look back at Drifter, at the man who’d dragged him past the worst of it and helped him out the other side. “I won’t be making that mistake again, trust me.”

He couldn’t take it anymore. He turned to the Stranger finally, and Zulia didn’t stop him when he took the shard from her outstretched hand, letting the weight of it settle into his bones before he walked back to where he’d left his sparrow, mounting it and zipping towards the Ziggurat without another word.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah I know the quote isn't exact. It's just a prompt after all.


End file.
